ORLANDO, Fla. — Complaints are mounting against an Orlando company that claims to be the largest food truck manufacturer in the United States.
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Consumers turned to Action 9 after they paid One Fat Frog thousands of dollars but claimed the company had failed to deliver their food trailers as promised.
Cooking is a passion for Kendra Brewster and her fiancé Muyideen Olowu.
Olowu said, “We always have friends over. We cook for them. Cooking was…you know, I guess it’s our love language.”
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Last year, the couple decided to take their New Orleans-Nigerian fusion cuisine to the community with a food trailer, and they turned to One Fat Frog to build the trailer.
“The reception from them was amazing. Like, the way they spoke to us, everything, the customer service. They just seem amazing,” Olowu told Action 9.
But after paying $40,000, he believes the company is anything but amazing. He said an estimated build and delivery time of 16 weeks has turned into nearly a year, and he still has no trailer.
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Action 9 saw similar complaints online. The company has an ‘F’ rating with the Better Business Bureau and One Fat Frog has been sued a dozen times in the past year, with creditors wanting money or customers claiming they haven’t received their mobile kitchens.
Michelle Costello is one of them. She has filed suit in Orange County, looking to get her money back.
“I lost the whole year, and eventually, I closed my business as of December 31,” she said.
Costello expected to receive her trailer in May and is still waiting.
Action 9 consumer investigator Jeff Deal went to One Fat Frog and spoke with the company’s director of compliance Thomas Sadaka and explained some of the complaints.
Deal said, “This gentleman right here, Muyideen Olowu said he paid $40,000, and he was promised the trailer in July, six months later, after the promise date…”
Before Deal finished the sentence, Sadaka responded by saying, “And so let’s go off camera. I’ll walk you around. We’ll talk about him and everybody else.”
Off camera, the company told the Action 9 team that supply chain issues coming out of COVID continue to impact build times, and the estimated delivery dates in the contracts are just estimates.
Operations manager Frank Connell also offered an apology saying, “I feel sorry, I feel sorry that we’re not able to perform like we intended to do with everything that’s happening with the economy with the structure of getting the materials in.
Court records show the company president Connie Baugher and her husband, former CEO Amin Hassanien, are going through a divorce.
Frank Connell said there are also money issues tied up in the legal battles between the two. He pointed the finger at Hassanien. and claimed he misdirected company funds.
“I would say it’s having a slight impact, but it’s not to the point where it’s destroying us,” Connell said.
Hassanien told Action 9 over the phone he never misdirected any of the company’s money.
If Thomas Sadaka, the director of compliance’s name, sounds familiar, it’s because he’s been in the news before.
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Sadaka is a former statewide prosecutor and private attorney who was disbarred after he was accused of stealing more than $200,000 from the law firm of an Orlando attorney and practicing law while under suspension.
In 2018, Sadaka pleaded no contest to second-degree grand theft, and adjudication was withheld. He just got off probation in December.
But no matter who’s working there and what the financial conditions are like, Michelle Costello and Muyideen Olowu just want their money back and to move on with their lives.
Olowu said, “And not just me. They’ve killed the dreams of so many people.”
The company claims the misdirected money is the reason it can’t offer refunds.
Thomas Sadaka responded to the concerns about his involvement in the company by saying his past troubles came out of a civil dispute between law partners ten years ago and people shouldn’t have any concerns about his involvement in the company.
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